George Mason incubator helps immigrant entrepreneurs rise

George Mason University’s vision for creating an entrepreneurship program for immigrants and refugees “connected the dots” of Sumeet Shrivastava’s history, beginning with his family’s emigration from Bihar, India, in the 1970s so his father, Satyendra Shrivastava, could earn a master’s degree. Mentors guided his father, who founded McLean-based information technology firm Anstec. In turn, his father went on to mentor others.

“I grew up watching all that happening and realizing that even if people have good intent, they still need mentors, they still need to understand the basics, especially immigrants … or refugees who are newer to the country that don’t always have a feel for how does it work here,” says Sumeet Shrivastava, a George Mason alumnus and former president and CEO of Array Information Technologies in Fairfax. The company was sold to Fairfax-based CGI Federal in 2021.

Shrivastava made a $1.5 million gift to George Mason that led to the September 2023 launch of the Shrivastava Family Refugee and Immigrant Success through Entrepreneurship (RISE) program at George Mason’s Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship (CIE).

An 11-month entrepreneurship training and business incubator, RISE includes a bootcamp covering basic tools, concepts and principles for launching and growing a business with limited resources. Almost all participants are Afghan immigrants referred through RISE partner Lutheran Social Services of the National Capital Area, a human services and immigration and refugee relief agency. RISE is the first of three programs that CIE hopes to launch under its Soar Initiative, which aims to provide access to entrepreneurship opportunities to communities lacking such training.

RISE started with 47 initial participants, with 27 advancing to the second phase, meeting with mentors every other week for three months and getting coached on setting up businesses. Beginning in late January, participants will be paired with Mason Honors College students to launch their startups.

Mohammad Rafiq Katawazai owned a restaurant in Afghanistan and is working with a mentor to open a restaurant serving coffee, tea and soup, a popular concept back home. He wanted to go into business before signing up for RISE but was confused about where to start. “I’ve learned a lot,” he says. “A lot of things in our culture are so much different. Business is different.”

Shrivastava’s donation is being used to create an endowment, and Shrivastava plans to reach out to other potential donors to help keep RISE going. “I think there’s a huge opportunity to scale it,” he says.